Exquisite

Goodreads Description

Bo Luxton has it all—a loving family, a beautiful home in the Lake District, and a clutch of bestselling books to her name. Enter Alice Dark, an aspiring writer who is drifting through life, with a series of dead-end jobs and a freeloading boyfriend. When they meet at a writers’ retreat, the chemistry is instant, and a sinister relationship develops. Or does it? Breathlessly pacey, taut and terrifying, Exquisite is a startlingly original and unbalancing psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

My Review

I'm an absolute sucker for a great cover! And as the old saying goes, one should never judge a book by its cover, but I often do. Marketing 101 dictates: have an appealing and catchy cover, and if you ask me, this one does. For this reason alone, I was sold on this book. I think the cover is absolutely stunning and I can't put my finger on exactly why. Perhaps it's the dominating black colour, or the shape of the body, which at first glance you don't actually notice as such. Whatever it is, this cover just works for me.

But enough about that and back to the book itself. What a fantastic read! I started this book one night in bed, thinking that I'd just read a few pages, and then there I was, warm and snugly, and 70 pages in. I was so gripped by the basic story of Bo and Alice that I couldn't stop reading. When I think back to those first 70 pages, I can't tell you that there was action, drama, murders or creepy characters, because there were none of those things. There were just two woman at different points in their lives, meeting each other for the first time. Because of this, it's difficult to pin point exactly what was so gripping about those pages. But gripping they were!

I have spent a lot of time thinking about how best to describe this book. There are many words that come to mind: fascinating, gripping, well written, poetic, but I think the one that sums this book up perfectly is, original. For a bookworm like me, who reads tons of psychological thrillers every year, this book was just so different. I've never read a psychological thriller quite like this one before. I must also say that I went into this one totally blind. In other words, I never read the blurb on the back cover and although I had read and heard plenty of good things about the book, I never actually knew what it was about. I think that also helped. And I recommend reading this book in that way if you can.

Some of you might remember from a previous post that I spoke about Orenda Books. They are a publishing house based in the UK who are quickly becoming favourites in the blogging world due to the high quality books that they publish. Well, this is another book published by Orenda Books. The sad news for us South Africans is that Orenda have not yet found a local distributor, although I have it on good authority that they are trying hard. But all it not lost. You can still get your hands on a copy of this book by ordering online, over the Loot website.

This is a great read and it will go down as one of my favourites of the year. I'm quite sure that it will be in my top 10 by the end of 2017. Simply put, it's...exquisite!

My Rating: * * * * *

Publication Date: May 2017 (only available in SA through Loot online store, www.loot.co.za)

Genre: Psychological thriller

Format: Paperback

Source: Review copy received from the publisher. Many thanks to author, Sarah Stovell and Orenda Books (the lovely Karen Sullivan) for my copy. It was my pleasure to read and review this book. And may I say that we hope to see you in South Africa soon!